Plants in the diet of the first farmers in Primorye: experience in applying analysis of the ancient starch

The authors apply the method of analyzing the ancient starch to study subsistence system of people in prehistory. Special attention is paid to the first farmers who appeared in Primorye approximately 5000 years ago. The first inhabitants of the Krounovka 1 site belonged to Zaisanovskiy cultural tradition. They combined plant cultivation which was an innovation for the region with traditional gathering. This paper presents results of examining the ancient starch extracted from the surface of stone tools used by ancient population for plants grinding. Starch analysis method is one of archaeobotanical methods. The comparison of the results with flotation data provided an opportunity to evaluate information that can be obtained by applying both methods. The use of cereals (two types of cultivated millet and Triticeae were reliably identified) as well as processing of acorns, lilies and other products of gathering was determined.